Nebuchadnezzar II 015
| Obverse | ||
| Column i | ||
| i 1i 1 | (i 1) Nebuchadnezzar (II), king of Babylon, the true shepherd who provides for Esagil and Ezida, foremost heir of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I. | |
| i 22 | ||
| i 33 | ||
| i 44 | ||
| i 55 | ||
| i 66 | ||
| i 77 | (i 7) I established the city of Babylon as a fortress, (to be effective) from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, in the totality of all lands (and) every single inhabited settlement, all of the lands whose shepherdship the god Marduk, my lord, had given to me. | |
| i 88 | ||
| i 99 | ||
| i 1010 | ||
| i 1111 | ||
| i 1212 | ||
| i 1313 | ||
| i 1414 | (i 14) In order to strengthen the protection of Esagil (so that) no evil-doer or murderer can come near Babylon, I heaped up large earthworks from the border of Babylon to the interior of Kish (and) from the opposite side of Kish to Kār-Nergal, a distance of four and two-thirds leagues, and had the city surrounded with far-reaching water. | |
| i 1515 | ||
| i 1616 | ||
| i 1717 | ||
| i 1818 | ||
| i 1919 | ||
| i 2020 | ||
| i 2121 | 4 2/3 KASKAL.GÍD qá-qá-ri mi-ši-iḫ-tim2 | |
| i 2222 | ||
| i 2323 | ||
| i 2424 | (i 24) In order to prevent dike breaks arising in them, I constructed their bank(s) (with) strong embankment(s) using bitumen and baked brick. | |
| i 2525 | ||
| i 2626 | ||
| i 2727 | (i 27) Above Babylon, (on) the opposite side of Sippar of the god Šamaš, I regularly heaped up large earthen mounds from the bank of the Tigris River to the bank of the Euphrates River, a distance of five leagues, and had the land for twenty leagues distance surrounded with far-reaching water, like the expanse of the sea. | |
| i 2828 | ||
| Column ii | ||
| ii 1ii 1 | ||
| ii 22 | ||
| ii 33 | ||
| ii 44 | ||
| ii 55 | (ii 5) In order that those earthen mounds not be carried away by the battering of the furious waves, I constructed their bank(s) (with) strong embankment(s) using bitumen and baked brick. | |
| ii 66 | ||
| ii 77 | ||
| ii 88 | ||
| ii 99 | (ii 9) I strengthened the protection of Esagil and Babylon and (thereby) established Babylon as a mountain (to protect) the life of the people. I did not allow troublemaker(s) to prevent the people living inside it from pulling the chariot pole of the god Marduk, my lord. | |
| ii 1010 | ||
| ii 1111 | ||
| ii 1212 | ||
| ii 1313 | ||
| ii 1414 | ||
| ii 1515 | (ii 15) O lord Marduk, look with favor and pleasure upon my deeds and grant me a long life (and) the attainment of very old age. My lord, Marduk, (on) the day(s) that I lift up (my) hands to you (in prayer), may your mighty weapons, which cannot be withstood, go at my side to cut down my enemies. | |
| ii 1616 | ||
| ii 1717 | ||
| ii 1818 | ||
| ii 1919 | ||
| ii 2020 | ||
| ii 2121 | ||
| ii 2222 | ||
| ii 2323 | ||
| ii 2424 | (ii 24) Whoever (you are) in the future, do not alter my work (and) do not change my handiwork. Constantly seek out the way(s) of the gods, be concerned with the strengthening of the protection of the city (Babylon), heap up a wall of earth, remove fallen bricks, surround the land on all sides with far-reaching water, be compassionate towards your land, (and) keep your great god safe. | |
| ii 2525 | ||
| ii 2626 | ||
| ii 2727 | ||
| ii 2828 | ||
| ii 2929 | se-er-ḫi SAḪAR.ḪI.A šu-pu-uk mi-qí-it-tì a-gur-ri šu-us-sé-e | |
| ii 3030 | ||
| ii 3131 |
1Compare the significantly shorter description of the construction of the “cross-country” walls in Nbk. 17 (C11) lines 5–10a. This accomplishment is also recorded in B31; NeKA i´ 15´–27´; and WBC vi 60–77.
24 2/3 KASKAL.GÍD “four and two-thirds leagues”: This is approximately 50.4 km (Da Riva, Studies Watson p. 16).
35 KASKAL.GÍD “five leagues”: This is approximately 54 km (Da Riva, Studies Watson p. 16). For the archaeological remains of this wall, see Ḥabl aṣ-Ṣaḫr 1983–85 and Ḥabl aṣ-Ṣaḫr 1986.
4ra-bí-ù-tim “large”: Exs. 3–4 have da-nu₄-tim, “strong.”
5da-nu₄-tim “far-reaching”: Exs. 3–4 have ra-bí-ù-tim “huge expanse.” The translation of dannu as “far-reaching” follows the CAD (D p. 94 sub dannu 1.b). gi-pí-iš ti-a-am-tim “the expanse of the sea”: Ex. 3 has gi-pí-iš-tì ti-a-am-tim, “the mass of the sea.”
6On ex. 4, col. ii started with this line. 20 KASKAL.GÍD “twenty leagues”: This is approximately 216 km (Da Riva, Studies Watson p. 16). The twenty leagues are the rounded distance of the two canals that flanked the northern wall and the two waterways that ran beside the southern wall. Thus, 4.75 + 4.75 + 5 + 5 = 19.5, which is rounded up to an even 20.
7On ex. 1, col. ii began with this line.
8à-aḫ-ra-a-tim “the future”: Based on Npl. 3 (C32) iii 11, in which aḫrītu is written à-aḫ-ra-tim, PI-aḫ-ra-a-tim is transliterated here as à-aḫ-ra-a-tim, rather than as wa-aḫ-ra-a-tim. For the use of the PI at the beginning of words in Neo-Babylonian inscriptions, see the on-page note to Npl. 6 (C31) i 6, as well as Da Riva, GMTR 4 p. 87.
Created by Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny, 2015-24, for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich, the Henkel Foundation, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East), and and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/ribo/Q005486/.